Mad Hatter Stryder
by SundaySolis
Summary: After being on my own for so damn long, arriving at the caves was not the blessing it should have been. I'm not comfortable around my new roommates, and I'm not sure who to trust. Ian is too nice, Kyle is too mean, Jared is too depressed, and Brandt is too obsessed. The one thing I can count on? Stryders being as crazy as they have always been.
1. Prologue

**So sorry I haven't uploaded in more than a year! Haha I promise to go back to some of my old stories and fix them up and such, but for now, enjoy this new story that I feel like I'm gonna like a lot:D Hope y'all do, too.**

**Prologue**

I ran through the corridors as fast as I could, trying my best too loose whoever was chasing me. I was so used to this life that it didn't even bother me anymore, having to run all the time, having to fight for my life.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I hate not being able to get a good night's sleep, but I'm just so damn used to it already.

I jumped over the railing of the entrance of the hotel in which I had been holed up in for the past few days.

I landed on a crouch and took off running again, not stopping when I reached the street. Instead, I veered to the left when I reached the corner and jumped onto my waiting motorcycle.

I could hear them trying to catch up to me, but I knew they wouldn't .

They never did.

Without looking back, I shoved the key in the ignition and flew out of there.


	2. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

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Later on that night, I was not only exhausted, but I was also all out of food.

Sighing, I parked my bike under the cover of some trees, as close to the town as I dared.

Then I grabbed my backpack and hitched it up on my shoulders before continuing my journey to town on foot. I had first seen the town Marana when I was passing through and buried the name and location for later on in case I needed food.

It wasn't all that far from Tucson so it was kind of a risk, since the Seekers from the cities were way better and more experienced than those in small towns, so there was the risk of having these Seekers call for backup or something, but it was a risk that I would have to take.

I shook my head, trying to clear it.

I hiked all the way to the outskirts of town jogging and didn't slow down to a walk until I reached the first street. Then, I walked as casually as possible, looking from side to side, trying to make it out as if I were sightseeing rather than making sure no one noticed me.

I made sure to check all the windows of the houses to see which was one empty.

Even though it was already a bit dark outside, it wasn't late enough so that everyone was already asleep.

After half an hour of walking around town, I saw a house that had all the lights off.

Bingo, I thought.

I looked at the houses near the one I had seen, and noticed all the lights were on.

I crossed my fingers and prayed that there was no one inside and that no one would hear me.

I scurried towards the front door and begged to the higher power that these Souls were as weird as all others and always left the doors unlocked.

My prayers were answered when I was able to twist the knob of the front door and walk in as if I owned the place.

Closing the door behind me, I headed for the kitchen and opened cabinet after cabinet, stuffing my backpack until there was just no more space to cram any food into.

I then went to the sink and refilled my two water bottles before putting my face under the faucet and gulping down as much water as I could.

Then, I walked back out of the place, closing the door behind me and heading back to the woods to retrieve my bike.

Piece of cake.

Or so I thought.

The walk back was peaceful and calming, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But I should have known it wouldn't last.

I only got a few feet away from my bike before I noticed the three figures that were surrounding it, seeming to be inspecting it.

I closed my eyes and cursed, knowing I would have to drop my bag if I wanted to get out of there alive.

Reaching back, I removed the straps from my shoulders and eased the backpack into the ground as quietly as I possibly could. Once the backpack was on the ground, I took a step back and watched in horror as the bag titled to the side before falling on its side, causing me to flinch as the cans clanked against each other, making more noise in the quiet woods than if I had screamed out at the top of my lungs.

I looked up and my eyes met the startled blue gaze of one of the strangers.

He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't say there long enough to find out what it was he was going to say.

I spun on my feet and ran the opposite direction, cursing the day I was born all the while.

I could hear them behind me, closer than I had expected them to be.

Sure as hell closer than those other Seekers had been earlier today.

Wow, chased by Seekers two times in a day. It had to be some kind of record.

I decided to dwell on it later.

I heard a crunch behind me and realized that one of the men was actually closer to me than I had previously thought.

My eyes widened with the realization that this Seeker might actually be able to catch up to me and with a new found burst of fear induced speed, I moved out of his hands' reach, soon leaving him behind.

"Dammit, she's even faster than Mel." The man muttered to himself, grunting as he tried and failed to once more catch up to me.

Well I didn't know who Mel was, but one thing I knew for sure was that this Seeker was way too toned for my liking.

Being that close to him I realized that unlike most Souls, his muscles were well defined, as though if he worked out often, and he still hadn't lagged behind that much considered how long we'd been sprinting. It was weird, and I didn't like it. Usually, Seekers relied on their creepy tranquilizing sprays and harmless guns to take humans down, so it wasn't really much of a chore. There certainly wasn't this much running involved.

"Hey, wait!" the stranger panted. "I'm… human… I'm not… going to… hurt you."

I hesitated for only a second, but it was a second too long.

The moment I slowed down just barely, the stranger rushed forward and tackled me at the waist.

Down we went, me scratching and hitting anything I could reach, and him falling on top of me, holding me down.

One of my flailing limbs must've made contact because I heard him grunt in pain, and I took advantage of that, throwing my head back and head-butting him. He fell from on top of me and I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could before I took off running again.

The other two Seekers had caught up to us by then, so they were now close behind me again, and I growled.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" I called out behind me, knowing they could hear me.

"We're… human! Slow… down…. We only… want to... help!" one of them managed to choke out.

I wasn't going to fall for it, no matter how amazing it sounded.

It was too good to be true.

"Ian… leave her… we need… to get… back!" the other Seeker told the one chasing me, but the Seeker behind me, Ian, grunted, ignoring the other Seeker's command and continued chasing me.

The other Seeker fell behind, leaving only Ian and me.

"Fuck, you're… fast…" he muttered under his breath before addressing me. "Please… I just… want to… help… I'll stop… running… if you… do."

I was starting to get tired, so I knew I wouldn't last much longer.

"You… stop first. I'll find you."

I looked back to see him nod before he, too, fell back.

For a few precious seconds I considered not stopping, instead going deeper into the woods and finding a new hiding spot until they left again, but then I decided against it.

What if they were actually human?

I stopped running.


	3. Chapter 2

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**CHAPTER TWO**

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I turned back and started walking cautiously towards the stranger that was waiting for me a few feet back, a wide grin on his face.

"Hey." He greeted me once I was close enough so that he didn't have to yell for me to hear him talk.

"Hey." I called back, wary.

"I'm Ian. What's your name?"

When I didn't reply, he reached back and pulled out a small flashlight from his back pocket before he turned it on and passed the light over his chiseled face, which was clean shaven and his jaw strong and defined. His nose was straight and more perfect than any nose I had ever seen. His cheekbones were high and the skin seemed to stretch over them, as though he was not eating right, which under the circumstances, didn't surprise me much. His lips were full and a soft pink, and his teeth were straight and white. His hair fell against his forehead, creating a weird contrast, since his hair was jet black while his skin was rather pale. Then I noticed his eyes, which were not the color I had first thought they were. Instead of normal blue, they were the color of sapphires, shining bright under the light of the flashlight.

Beautiful sapphires and nothing else.

No gray.

He was human.

I stood dumbfounded, not believing what I was seeing.

After a couple of seconds, the tossed me the flashlight, and it was a miracle that I managed to catch it, considering the shocked state I was in.

I understood what he wanted me to do, so I mimicked his actions from earlier and flashed the light into my face.

I know what he saw. Limp red hair that fell down all the way to under my breasts, a pale face with freckles sprinkled over the bridge of a button nose and across my flushed cheeks, natural bright red, plump lips, and small, straight teeth. And most importantly, he would see bright green eyes and noting more.

No gray.

After he sent me another smile, I threw him back the flashlight.

"So what's your name?" he asked again, taking another step towards me.

This time I only hesitated for a second before replying.

"Adelyn."

Ian reached me and offered me his hand to shake.

I do so slowly, and then his hand warm enfolded mine, radiating comfort as his hand huge swallows mine, his long fingers almost reaching my wrist.

We shake hands three times before we just stand there holding hands, staring wondering at each other.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, but the moment we heard footsteps coming our way, we jumped away to put some distance between us and then turned to face the newcomers.

Two guys—the same one from before, I guessed—stopped where they were and raised their hands, palms up.

"It's just us." One of them assured.

Ian sighed and relaxed his posture.

"It's just Jared and my brother, Kyle. Guys, this is Addie."

"It's Adelyn." I corrected, but he just shrugged.

"Not anymore." He joked, offering me a smile.

I rolled my eyes.

"So, you caught me. Now what?"

Jared and Kyle exchanged a look.

"Well, we are living with other survivors in some caves. We can take you there. There's over twenty of us."

I scrunched up my nose.

"Uh, no thank you."

"Great, it's settled then—wait, what?" Kyle interrupted, shooting me a bewildered look.

Was it really that odd that I had turned down their invitation?

"Well, I don't want to live with a bunch of old people I don't know…" I trailed off after noting the indignant expressions on their faces.

"We're not _that_ old. Jared's twenty nine, Kyle's twenty eight, and I'm barely twenty four."

I raised my eyebrows at that.

"Well, I'm seventeen, so that's pretty old for me."

I informed them, crossing my arms over my chest.

Ian chuckled.

"We got a fifteen year old living with us, so you should be good to go." Kyle said sarcastically.

"Has it occurred to you that maybe I don't just want to go off with a bunch of strange men whom I've never seen before in my life?"

Kyle snorted.

"We're human, what's the worse that could happen?"

I glared at him.

"You could rape me. And then kill me when you're done."

My comment was met by silence.

"Why would we purposely hurt another human? We take care of each other. No one would do what you said." Kyle argued, causing me to see red.

"I beg to differ. One of the girls I was hiding with a few years back was actually raped and then killed by human men. You see, not everyone takes care of each other like you're suggesting. Some just look out for themselves."

Jared nodded, looking disturbed.

"Well, you've got a point. But you see, if we'd wanted to hurt you we would have done it already."

"We won't hurt you, Addie. We're just trying to look out for you." Ian added, his gaze dark.

"Well, maybe I don't need no one to look after me. I can take care of myself. Been doing it for the past six years, too."

"Well, suit yourself, princess." Kyle said before throwing a bag over his shoulder and starting to head back.

Jared shot me a pleading look.

"You should come. We won't force you to, but you'd be safer with us."

I shook my head again.

Then, he too, left, leaving me with only Ian.

"Come on, bro!" Kyle called out.

Ian offered me a smile.

"You really should come with us, though. It'd be better, and you could help us with raids and the like. We could take care of you, and you could help take care of everyone else."

I hesitated.

It wasn't that I didn't want to see more humans, it was just that I had a bit of a trust issue.

And I'd also not lived with anyone else for years, so it would be more than a bit odd.

I opened my mouth to say just that, but instead different words came out of my lips.

"Fine, but I need to go back to get my bike."

Ian's smile was so bright you'd think he's just won the goddamn lottery or something.

"You won't regret it."

I rolled my eyes at his cheeriness.

"Yeah, I better not." I joked, bumping his shoulder with my own.

We started walking and reached the other two men, who just shrugged and kept on walking.

"We need to go get her bike and her backpack." Ian told them, and we all steered back that way.

"We've got a car, but I bet we can fit your bike in the back or something." Jared mused, messing up his hair with his fingers.

"Sounds like a plan."


End file.
